Near the mouth of Souda bay, between the Akrotiri and the town of Kalives, there is a group of small islands with Venetian fortifications. The largest island is Souda Island, giving its name to the bay.
Souda Bay is now a popular tourist destination although there are no real public beaches due to the presence of the naval base. Villages such as Megala Chorafia and Kalives afford fine views of the bay, and house-building, particularly for foreigners and tourist companies, is spreading along the bay.
There have been port facilities on the bay since ancient times, previously serving the city of Aptera. Aptera was founded in the 7th Century BC and was an important city during the ancient and early Byzantine periods. It was destroyed by the Saracens in AD 823. The nearest large ancient city was Kydonia, which flourished in the Minoan era on Crete; moreover, during a portion of the first millennium BC Kydonia held influence over Aptera.
In 1822 an Egyptian army of approximately 10,000 under Hassan Pasha landed at Souda to defeat the Cretan Revolution of 1821.
After the Cretan Revolution of 1866–1869 the Ottomans built fortresses at Aptera and Kalami, barracks, a military hospital and a naval base. They also built the town of Souda at the head of the bay, as the new port of the nearby city of Chania. The fortress at Kalami is still in use as prisons. The naval base was officially inaugurated in 1872, in the presence of Sultan Abdul Aziz.
In the period of the semi-independent Cretan State the area attracted international interest, as it offered port facilities to foreign naval vessels enforcing the Cretan autonomy. The first High Commissioner, Prince George of Greece, disembarked at Souda Bay on December 9, 1898. The church of Saint Nicholas was built during this period.
In 1916 the British liner SS Minnewaska, requisitioned by the British Army as a troops carrier, struck a mine and was beached at Souda Bay.
After 1923 the area was used as an Hellenic Army base, housing the artillery units of V Infantry Division.
During World War II British and Commonwealth troops withdrew from mainland Greece in April 1941 and 25,000 men, mainly from New Zealand and Australia, disembarked at Souda Bay.
In May 1941, during the German attack named "Operation Merkur", Allied troops retreated from the Souda area to Sfakia in the south of the island. The Germans occupied the area until 1945. The principal Allied War Cemetery of the island, designed by architect Louis de Soissons, is located at Souda.
Since 2007 Souda Bay naval base is host of NATO Maritime Interidiction Operational Training Centre (ΝMIOTC), which is located at the Northern Sector of the base (Marathi).
Today the firing range is used mostly for Patriot and Hawk launches, although a wide range of surface to air and air to surface missiles are fired occasionally. As the trajectories of the missiles cross busy air and sea areas, an Air and Sea surveillance radar system is used to resolve possible conflicts.
During Turkish rule an Ottoman post office operated in Souda until 1892. The Cretan State post office opened officially in 1912, although a postal agent operated there previously, possibly since 1908.
A special local stamp depicting Souda Island was issued on November 15, 1913 to commemorate the union with Greece and was sold only by Cretan post offices. This stamp, printed by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company in the United Kingdom, is commonly called the "Souda Issue".
Category:Chania Prefecture Category:Bays of Greece Category:Bays of the Mediterranean Category:Military installations of Greece
it:Baia di Suda nn:Soúdabukta ru:Суда (бухта) fi:SoudanlahtiThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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